Lewis W. Hine. America at Work

More than 300 photographs by Lewis W. Hine, whose trailblazing documentary images of early 20th-century working conditions helped to transform United States labor laws. This book covers all eras of Hine’s work, including his pictures of child laborers, of new immigrants on Ellis Island, and of the construction of the Empire State Building.

Photographer, teacher, and sociologist Lewis W. Hine (1874–1940) shaped our consciousness of American working life in the early 20th century like no other. Combining his training as an educator with his humanist concerns, Hine was one of the earliest photographers to use the camera as a documentary tool, capturing in particular labor conditions, housing, and immigrants arriving on Ellis Island. His images, including those of children in cotton mills, factories, coal mines, and fields, became icons of photographic history that helped to transform labor laws in the United States.

This book brings together a representative collection of Lewis W. Hine’s photography from all periods of his work. It spans his earliest forays into social-documentary work through to his more artistic and interpretative late photographs, including his phenomenal images of the construction of the Empire State Building and his symbiotic staging of human and machine as a comment on increasing industrialization. Alongside the near 350 photographs, the book includes an essay by the editor, introducing Hine’s life and pioneering work.

The photographer

American photographer and sociologist Lewis W. Hine (1874–1940) was trained to be an educator in Chicago and New York before setting up his photography studio in 1912. One of the first to use the camera as a tool for social reform, Hine worked as photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, the Red Cross, and the National Research Project of the Works Progress Administration. His photographs were instrumental in changing child labor laws in the United States.

The author

Peter Walther has edited various publications on literary, photographic, and contemporary historical themes, including books on Goethe, Fontane, Thomas Mann, Hans Fallada, and writers in the First World War, as well as several illustrated books with historical color photographs. He has also curated several exhibitions. He is particularly interested in early color photography techniques.

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